Secondly I tried to do what Mystery FCM suggested with the "tracert.bat" I pasted the details into notepad, saved it as "tracert.bat" on desktop. that gave me an icon on my front screen, which when I double click gave me a black box with the headingc:\windows\system32/cmd.exe then nothing else happens

I also tried to use Kitz how to perform a tracert and how to save or output ping/tracert results and guess what

Could one possibility could be differing rules on firewalls/proxy servers?Perhaps one time your network routes your connection through one, and another time through a different one with different rules set on it?

Tracerts can also be blocked seperately, so the lack of tracert could be related, or completely seperate.

Not much help I'm afraid.

Best Wishes - James

Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand. - Chinese Proverb

Erhm, I don't pretend to understand I know how domain names, DNS lookups and routing etc. work but that looks 'interesting' (AKA confusing !) Is there something a bit cooky with the DNS there or am I being stupid ?

Incidentally, just tried the links above and they didn't work - timed out eventually. Tried again and the same. Tried again and no probs. Hmmmm, I've seen this before and get something similar on a variety of different sites myself quite often. It almost looks like the first time (or few times) you try to access a particular site nothing happens but a couple of tries or refreshes later it works without problem and then continues to do so thereafter. Now it can't possibly be that the sites in question just happened to be down or whatever at that particular time so something DNS or cache related methinks

--WARNING: The e-mail address on my profile is not my usual address, all messages sent via this site have been redirected elsewhere for test purposes. This could result in messages not being received in a timely manner or potentially not being received at all.

Erhm, I don't pretend to understand I know how domain names, DNS lookups and routing etc. work but that looks 'interesting' (AKA confusing !) Is there something a bit cooky with the DNS there or am I being stupid ?

Erhm, I don't pretend to understand I know how domain names, DNS lookups and routing etc. work but that looks 'interesting' (AKA confusing !) Is there something a bit cooky with the DNS there or am I being stupid ?

Incidentally, just tried the links above and they didn't work - timed out eventually. Tried again and the same. Tried again and no probs. Hmmmm, I've seen this before and get something similar on a variety of different sites myself quite often. It almost looks like the first time (or few times) you try to access a particular site nothing happens but a couple of tries or refreshes later it works without problem and then continues to do so thereafter. Now it can't possibly be that the sites in question just happened to be down or whatever at that particular time so something DNS or cache related methinks

Couldn't access the links here either. Tried earlier aswell and it timed out then aswell.